Inside the Oni dungeon. An isolated battlefield inside the sacred pyramid.

15 days have passed since Eren and Alephee first faced off.

A few monsters remained on standby to serve their king, also serving as spectators. They watched as their king fought with the Homunculus once again.

He had been sparring with her every chance he got in these 15 days with only a few short breaks. His Adept rank body had allowed him to skip sleep for days on end while allowing him to maintain his form.

Alephee had never seen Eren this focused before. She had also been training him to take control of his mana circuits during the nights. He would suffer unimaginable amounts of pain while practicing his ranking technique. That period of suffering also served as his rest.

He would then get up and start challenging Alephee with newfound vigor. He had never truly slept in these 15 days, pushing himself further than even his own imagination. It was as if he had stepped into Adept rank just to become more brutal on himself than before.

And yet, his diligent work failed to produce any semblance of the results he wanted to have. His efforts got him from nowhere to nowhere.

It was much easier to stay motivated when there was a reward in sight. But how could a person keep on putting in more effort when there was no gain to be seen?

The answer to the question came easily for Eren. He had seen the most terrible version of himself. He was running away from that image he had in his mind about himself. And in doing so, he would receive all the motivation in the world.

People fighting addiction in all seriousness would be scared to get anywhere near the source of their addiction. They couldn't trust themselves anywhere near it. Eren was in a similar situation.

Alephee was sure that she wouldn't have been able to keep up with Eren if she didn't have a Homunculus vessel. Eren's schedule forced her to burn away mana stones in abundance.

Today was no different.

Clang!

Alephee was using Solid Spark as a weapon to clash against Eren's weapon attacks. She was also using her summoned beasts to put more pressure on him and his summoned beasts.

Alephee's summoned griffin was battling against Eren's bunch of fire snakes. These boa snakes were much higher than before. Their raised heads allowed them to look eye to eye with the griffon.

Alephee was gradually increasing the difficulty of the battles against Eren. Every time she saw him getting comfortable at the current level, she would raise the difficulty by a notch. Eren had to be on his toes at all times due to the progressive overload.

Alephee had already shown him that the summoned beast's elemental affinity could be made compatible with him. However, he needed to have complete control over his mana circuits before making changes like these on the fly. Once that feat has been achieved, the summoned beasts would have unusual battle styles not previously associated with their species.

Eren had maintained Blitz Shield on his boa fire snakes. They were not completely compatible with each other. But Eren wanted to gain experience in using different spells in conjunction with each other. So he tested various combinations he hadn't thought of before.

"Haaah!"

Eren released another series of Invi Blaze and Purple Reaver flying slashes toward the approaching Alephee while activating his time-element spells.

Sedated Perception

Stunning Speed

He then used Total Control to amplify the effects of his movement spell before disappearing from his position. Despite his best efforts to control such a novel spell combo, he couldn't completely control his body.

As a result, the ground beneath his feet cracked and split in the same direction as he had gone off. Alephee could only chuckle when she saw him using time-element spells against her just to increase his speed and response time.

She liked that Eren had paired up Total Control with his movement spell. The two spells complemented each other. And the spell combo produced favorable results.

But Eren was still far away from integrating the spells. Plus, Eren was unable to control the recoil of using the spell combo at this point. Instead of approaching him normally, she decided to show him something interesting once again.

She first used wind-element mana to summon an eagle. She then activated the three time-element spells that had been integrated with its casting.

Sedated Perception

Stunning Speed

Wind Blade Tornado

Eren was wondering why Alephee wasn't approaching him from behind while he was in this stagnant world. Just then, he felt a strong mana pulse and looked behind him. He saw Alephee smiling at him with her usual carefree expressions.

Eren's near-stagnant world didn't affect Alephee or her movements. However, her powers were related to time itself. So Eren wasn't surprised by that fact.

What surprised him came afterward. The summoned eagle, which was as large as Argo was when he shapeshifted into his eagle form, was also able to move in the near-stagnant world. He quickly approached Eren with his exceptional flight speed before releasing the spell.

Eren saw a bunch of wind-blade tornadoes coming at him from various angles and multiple directions. Since he was already using his time element spells as well as his movement spell, he couldn't outmaneuver them.

Plus, the wind blades had formed quickly despite the stagnant world, indicating that Alephee had allowed the summoned beast to use Total Control on them. Eren could only smile bitterly when he saw what Alephee could do.

Like in his case, Alephee's time-element spells went undetected when they were cast. Eren could tell only because he had personally experienced and used the spell's effects.

Wind Blade Tornado

Purple Reaver

Invi Blaze

Eren first cast his own stacked Wind Blade Tornado all around him. His weapons then began sending slashes in the air, meant to destroy all the blades coming at him.

Eren continued casting his weapons spells in conjunction with the Wind Blades. However, suddenly one of his weapons started creaking. Purple Reaver had developed cracks over its blade.

'Fuck. Not again.'

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